The Vintage Caravan, Monuments

Formed when they were just twelve years old, the Icelandic trio The Vintage Caravan's songs and sound had always stayed close to the 'hard hitting riff fueled' music of the bands they loved and idolized; Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Mastodon, Rush, and Cream. But, as lead singer and guitarist Óskar Logi Ágústsson recently said in an interview, they never set out to be a band that sounded like it was frozen in 1971 and then put in the microwave all these years later.

In February of 2020, after extensive touring that brought new attention and fans to the band, they entered the studio to record their fifth album Monuments. Twenty-two days later, after more or less living at the studio, the band walked out feeling that they had really found and stamped their own sound for the first time. And what a sound.

Monuments is a hard hitting, hard rocking, superb album with all the right riffs, hooks, and surprises to keep even the most ardent rock fan totally engrossed in it. For me, it's one of the best albums by a rock trio that I have heard in a long time.